MPAA tracks illegal movie copies

The guys at VCDQuality have noticed that strange markings have started to appear on some recent movies. The dots are most likely used by MPAA to track the source of illegal movie copies spread on the Internet.

Many of the first copies of movies appearing on the Net are so called "cam" copies, which are shot using a camcorder in a movie theatre. By inserting unique identifying tags to a couple of frames in a movie, the copyright holders can narrow down the origin of the pirated copy, and possibyly even track down the offender.

Removing the markings is possible, but laborious. I'd bet MPAA has other methods for identifying the copies as well. It remains to be seen if MPAA will be engaging in a high profile pirate hunt similar to RIAA's.

I'm not so sure. This IS a good way to fight piracy. Which is good, but if you just want to download the movie to see whether it's worth seeing or not, then this is bad. I never download cam copies. They're just too bad for me. ;)

Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

I'm not so sure. This IS a good way to fight piracy. Which is good, but if you just want to download the movie to see whether it's worth seeing or not, then this is bad. I never download cam copies. They're just too bad for me. ;)

Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

Naw it's not even like that, people who encode movies WILL find a way to erase this. Acouple people who aren't "in the know" will get caught. But there is always a way and the MPAA only has a little bit of time till a program or plug in is made to remove those dots.

WTF is wrong with dvd prices? It costs almost the same to buy a dvd as a new music album. How bout you get off your fat ass and get a job, that way you can buy stuff instead of complaining that everything is too expensive.

Must reinterate, if they lower their prices, i would buy music and dvds. But, right now, it is a straight rip off. I heard someone say today that you should be buying the music, not the price of the piece of plastic, but F@CK YOU, thats because you want as much profit as possible. If the musician made the profit, i would have no problem with buying the cd.

Geez children. We all *know* that stuff is overpriced and stuff like that but Bladestor, your comments were completely unwarranted. That goes for you to Burnaby.
About the 'dots' - it was just a matter of time before stuff like that happened. Now to inform the media that even public viewers that watch movies in theaters are being id'd with dots... another PR nitemare.

I'm a manager at a gym. So I got the job thing covered, and fat lazy ass? sorry doesn't apply either. Dvd prices are crapy, and so are cds. Being an avid skydiver, Id rather spend most of my money on gear than 24$ I could have put twards a pass to jump all day.

besides tracking movies with dots - popcorn and coke really has gotten way out of had price wise, in theaters (it can cost more for that crap than for the movie) - but I heard that movie theater food is where the theater gets most of their revenue - the movie makers and actors get the lion share of the money spent in the theater - so when u pay 5 bucks for popcorn and whatever, u really are keeping the theater in operation!